Hopper railcars are often used to carry a variety of goods such as grain, coal, gravel, ore, and the like. A hopper railcar typically includes a wide top opening for ease of loading cargo into the railcar for transport. In addition, many hopper railcars include one or more narrower openings on their undersides, to facilitate unloading of the cargo. In particular, the one or more narrower openings may be closed to retain the cargo during transport and opened at the destination, to allow the cargo to be unloaded.
Depending on the type of cargo and the configuration of the hopper car, a bottleneck condition may arise whereby the cargo can get stuck in one of the narrower, bottom openings of the hopper car. To prevent such bottlenecks from occurring, hopper vibrators have been devised that shake the bottom opening of the railcar during unloading of cargo. In doing so, any cargo that becomes momentarily stuck in the bottom opening may be shaken loose, thereby alleviating the bottleneck.
Typically, the attachment and detachment of a railcar vibrator to and from a hopper railcar requires manual intervention by a railway worker. While railcar vibrators and their attachment brackets are somewhat portable, they may still weigh as much as one hundred and sixty five pounds, for example. Thus, railcar vibrators are often difficult to lift and position into the corresponding retaining bracket on the railcar. In addition, after the cargo has been unloaded, vibrators often become stuck in the retaining bracket of the railcar, making it difficult to remove a vibrator manually.